Well before independence the Algerian painting of Western inspirations is remarkable with Abdelhalim Hemche, Azouaou Mammeri or later Mohamed Bouzid, Bachir Yelles and Ali Khodja.
In addition, the thumbnail pictures and the Algerian illumination take a particular rise thanks to the RACIM. It is necessary to underline the role of Mohamed Racim in the authentic safeguard of the values of Algeria. Consequently of its school opens out with thus Mohamed Temmam, Mohamed Ranem, Hammimouna as well as rising generation which draws from this art their inspiration and their techniques.
The figurative tendency is certainly indebted to the former artists. Each one has its manner, Racim or Dinet, particularly influenced this movement attached to the tradition or the values of the company and the everyday life.
Baya or Benaboura illustrates the painting known as naive which reflects the Algerian heart Zimirli, Samson, Abdoun and well of others are also attached has this impression of a freshness and an astonishing simplicity.
More elaborate, the creation of Issiakhem brings a new energy which opens the way in the more abstract searches of Khadda, Mesli, Benanteur and Guermaz.
Let us mention finally, several artistic movements which flowered has through the various areas of Algeria like those from rough art, or D ' "El Aouchem", and of the "Essebaghines"… with Hakkar, Ammar Bouras, Zineb Sedira, Samta Benyahia, etc....
Dalila Orfali preserving of the museum of beautiful arts of Algiers thus analyzed the last years of Algerian painting: "the last decade was characterized by a deepening of these tendencies…
The dominant one which characterizes from the Nineties to the year 2000 could be defined as a significant revival of the artistic activity of the country, where prevails the techniques of individualities. Thus one could note a renewed interest for a figuration which does not have anything any more symbolic system…
Among the representatives of this movement, let us quote Djemaï, Bourdine, Hafidh, Heinen-Ayech, Chegrane.
In addition, the young school of painting is implied in all the corners of planet, draining a vision or are combined in spite of them, the constants of the historical and cultural heritage (transitory avant-gardists compositions, arts, etc....)
They are also women who do not hesitate to decide courageously through their writings in the most difficult moments, whereas others are kept silent, at the beginning of the Nineties:
- Malika Modadem: "the Prohibited one" in 1990
- Bouraoui Mined: "the Voyeuse prohibited" in 1991
- Leila Sebbar: "the silence of Banks" in 1993
- Assia Djebbar: "Far from Médine" in 1992
Nadia Ghalem publishes in Canada, others are it in Paris or Damas.
The visual arts offer a multiple panorama, accessible to each one, in fields as varied as that of the thumbnail pictures and the illumination (Racim, Temmam, Bendebbag, Ghanem, Sahraoui), the figurative one (Yelles, Baya, AliKhodja or Houamel), abstract (Issiakhem, khadda, Mesli, Guermaz, Hakkar…). It is precisely the abstract which knows more and more the passion on behalf of those which try to show the unsoundable one.
Many painters devote themselves to the representation of the landscapes: Abderrahman, Sahouli, Nedjar Ben sheik, Zermane, Hamchaoui or Chaouane.
With the search for a quite Algerian pictorial expression, some are autodidacts, of "realistic naive" or photographers.
A new generation of artists (Sid Ahmed Chabane, Slimane Ould Mohamed, Amar Stuffed, Yahia Abdelmalek, Myriam Ait Chehara, Reda Tebib…) will come to enrich the artistic language by the years 1980 by brought back the new ones, such as powders, rich tar, skins vegetable, plastic, wood, paperboards… working out an impregnated art of modern technologies; it is difficult to find an unspecified reference direct to the landscape of the city (Nadia Laggoune: "Algiers in painting").
